Networking architectures have grown increasingly complex in communications environments, particularly mobile wireless environments. Mobile data traffic has grown extensively in recent years; the types of data being transported through mobile wireless networks have also changed dramatically. Video, file-sharing, and other types of usages (more traditionally associated with wired networks) have been gradually displacing voice as the dominant traffic in mobile wireless networks. In addition, the augmentation of clients or end users wishing to communicate in a network environment has caused many networking configurations and systems to respond by adding elements to accommodate the increase in networking traffic. As the subscriber base of end users increases, proper routing and efficient management of communication sessions and data flows become even more critical. Hence, there is a significant challenge in coordinating which flows merit particular processing in order to minimize resources and expenses associated with optimally managing network traffic. In some instances, deep packet inspection (DPI) operations can be performed by network elements in a communication environment, including processing and routing based on the inspection of header and payload data. DPI can be used, for example, to search for protocol non-compliance, identify commercial services accessed, search for viruses, malware, spam, intrusions attempts, or other predefined criteria and use the data gathered to take particular action using the packet, including the collection of statistical information for a data flow.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.